MGT601: Reflective Report: Personal Leadership Development Journey

This report, submitted by a student, is a reflective analysis of their leadership journey and self-development, focusing on the application of the Gallup StrengthsFinder assessment. The report details leadership challenges faced by the student, including those related to cross-cultural communication and team management within a multinational corporation. The student reflects on significant leadership incidents, such as a business presentation with Japanese clients, and how these experiences highlighted the importance of cultural awareness and effective communication. The report also connects the student's Gallup test results, specifically the 'Arranger' and 'Restorative' strengths, to their leadership approach and problem-solving skills. Furthermore, the student explores influential figures in their leadership development, such as a mentor who emphasized the importance of employee motivation and transformational leadership. The report concludes with a self-assessment of the student's leadership style, incorporating insights from the Gallup test and personal experiences to identify areas for future growth and development in line with new leadership paradigms.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The organization success of any organization depends of the leaders and their hard work. It is
very essential that the leaders are able to ensure that they develop a proper understanding with
their co workers and are able to form a proper horizontal communication as well. This makes the
team workers trust the leaders and also reach out to them whenever necessary. All leaders must
conduct the personality tests so that they are able to get the results about their own traits and also
develop the strategies that they would be requiring to move forward in their professional lives.
This assignment has dealt with the importance of Gallup test analysis and how it can be used for
overcoming the weakness for the betterment of the future and overall organizational success.

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.
Table of Contents
3. Introduction..................................................................................................................................4
4. DISCUSSION..............................................................................................................................4
leadership challenges in your organization..................................................................................4
Issues in the current organization.................................................................................................5
Important incident in my leadership journey...............................................................................6
Connection with Gallup strength test result.................................................................................7
•leadership journey so far................................................................................................................8
who influenced you......................................................................................................................8
Critical events that have been influential.....................................................................................8
My self image as a leader.............................................................................................................9
5. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................11

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3. Introduction
A proper leadership approach is needed for the overall welfare of the organization. This is
because employees will have to work under a sound and organized leadership so that they are
able to get the help and the assistance from all of them whenever they are in need. As per my
opinion conducting a self analysis is of utmost importance because this will be showing a
detailed description of the strengths and the weakness that are actually present. I feel that
conducting Gallup strength test has actually proved very useful for me because I will now be
able to work over the areas of weakness and also strengthen my areas of strength. This will
surely help me to understand about the different ways in which I can also work over the areas of
strengths in order to work in the post of a successful manager in the future years of my
profession. Conducting the gallup strength test has helped me to understand that I am still a
learner and I must be able to understand the new strategies and the methods in which I will have
to carry on with my leadership style and strategy.
4. DISCUSSION
leadership challenges in your organization
I am currently working as the systems manager in one of the well reputed MNCs. I feel that this
is one of the very responsible posts as I am in charge of looking after the proper working of the
system that is the ongoing business operations. However I will have to ensure that in order to be

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able to understand all the issues developing in the industry, I am able to form a connection with
my team members. I am always in favor of following a people centric or a people oriented
leadership style. This is mainly because of the reason that I feel it is essential to involve the
opinions and the views of all the followers. Being a leader I always like to move forward with all
my team mates together. I try to encourage them and motivate them by giving them several
challenging tasks. This enables them to understand that the managers have trust in their
capabilities and thus they give in all their potential for their completing the tasks. However I feel
that conducting the Gallup strength results have helped me a lot. This is mainly because of the
fact that I will now be able to implement these in fulfilling my respective roles and
responsibilities.
Issues in the current organization
I am also being able to learn that different people coming from different communities have
differences in their mindset and their attitudes. There are often some cultural clashes and
difference of opinion that is taking place in the organization.
This is because I feel that there is a lack of cross cultural understanding and proper awareness
among people. This is because people must be able to understand that all the cultures are
important and unique in their own way. I have seen that there are differences in the business
etiquettes and the business mannerisms that are actually being carried on by the people. It is
because of this reason that there are often many conflicts and this in turn hampers the overall
productivity of the organization. As per the opinion of Busch & Davis (2018), culture is like a
software or also like and operating system. In other words cultural orientation or the ethnic

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values of individuals is something that cannot be seen apparently but it influences the overall
attitude of the person. Culture is a set of beliefs that are followed by people of different
communities and also they will be learned in the due course of time.
Important incident in my leadership journey
As I am working in Australia, I have been able to witness a mixture of many different cultural
values. However one of the incidents happened during a business presentation. There were some
Japanese clients who came to the office for this presentation. The presentation was being
delivered by a team of 4 members under my supervisions. All of use is well versed in the
Australian business etiquettes. I was delivering the presentation and after completing it, I showed
a sign of thumbs’ up as a sign of success and also wanted to shake hands with the Japanese
business clients. However this was not at all well accepted by the employees and they did not
want to carry on the meeting any further. However in the initial phase, I was not able to
understand what went wrong and why are the Japanese clients angered all of a sudden. However
later on, we realized that showing a thumbs up or doing the gesture of shaking hands was not
considered correct within the Japanese code of ethics. In other words there are some
inappropriate behaviors or business etiquettes among the Japanese community. This is where I
came to know about the fact that cross cultural differences often have a huge impact on the
overall business processes and if not managed properly then they will be hampering the overall
profit of the business. However I personally found it rude to leave the meeting all of a sudden. I
made an attempt to communicate with those Japanese clients. I apologized from them and also
said that this was totally unintentional and we did not mean to offend the It is just because of the
cultural differences that we showed those gestures, I also explained them that in Australia these

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are really very common and they are accepted as a sign of success and welcoming attitude, After
this the Japanese lead who was leading their team understood that this was nothing but a mere
misunderstanding. They also apologized for being rude and trying to leave the meeting all of a
sudden. They also explained that the business etiquettes are totally different in pan. They usually
try to maintain a safe distance from each other and also avoid physical contact as a sign of
professionalism and also respect. They just bow before each other to show respect and do not
really entertain the gestures of hugging, patting on back or even shaking hands.
Connection with Gallup strength test result
This is also evident with my Gallup strength test result which said that I am an arranger; this is
because of the fact that I was able to gather all the available resources and connect them together
so that we can reach the maximum productivity. I have been able to use the valuable evidences
about the cultural differences that had actually given rise to the conflict. This in turn really
helped me to make sure that the issue is being sorted out and that there are no further differences
among us.
I am also able to relate with another result that I got in the Gallup test finder. This is because one
of my attribute is restorative. I have been able to understand that one who is restorative is good
and adept towards problem solving, I feel that as an ideal (Royal et al., 2018) I must always be
able to use my domain skill and also all the other available resources to solve the issues that are
arising. This will also help my employees or my team members to have a faith in my ability
(McMahon & Zhang, 2018).
I have learned from this example that it is really essential to conduct a regular cross cultural
training session in the organization so that all the employees coming from different communities

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are able to understand each other and also embrace the cultural differences. McMahon, C., &
Zhang, X. (2018, September
•leadership journey so far
who influenced you
I feel that one of the most influential figures in my leadership journey has been my trainer. He
has been one of the best mentors in my professional life. He has always helped me to understand
that an ideal leader must know how to keep his or her employees happy. I have been able to learn
that team members are to be motivated and encouraged at every point of time so that they are
able to work with all their potential and their strength (Miglianico et al.,2019).
Critical events that have been influential
One of the events took place when I was working as a management trainee after I first joined the
organization. We were under the supervision of two executives. One is the mentor and the other
is marketing manager. As per the opinion of the marketing manager, he was one of the best
leaders and he believed that whatever decisions he would take was right. He was also of a very
ambitious nature and followed the autocratic leadership approach. This is because he never
communicated with any of the employees regarding the business decisions and tried to take all
the decisions himself. However, this is not right. In order to make sure that he is able to fulfill his
target, he used to create unnecessary pressure on all of us. There was no transparency between us
and the manager. This made us really demotivated and we were about to resign. However my
mentor then consoled me and all the other trainees. He explained that we must take this as a

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lesson. We must ever give up confidence and must always know how to fight back the hardships
and deal with the situation. My mentor always followed the transformational leadership
approach, He was of the opinion that the best way to connect with one’s followers is via
relationship building (van Woerkom, Oerlemans & Bakker, 2016). This helps on creating a
change or a transformation among the followers. A transformation leader is one who is able to
support his employee’s at all possible steps can (Woerkom, Oerlemans & Bakker, 2016). A
transformation leader will also follow a transparent approach and allow all his followers or his
team mates to give in their opinions and their understandings before reaching to any final
decisions.My mentor then guided us to make a complaint the HR department. The HR
department took immediate action against the marketing manager and displaced him from that
charge (Van Aken & Berends, 2018). This has been a very influential incident in my professional
journey as I leant the most important traits that must be present in modern leaders.
My self image as a leader
I feel that in order to be an ideal leader in this modern day scenario, I will have to abide by many
new concepts of leadership. I will have to abide by the new paradigms of leadership.
Old paradigm New paradigm
Stability Change
Controlling
others
Empowering
others
competition collaboration
dependence In dependence

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and
interdependence
This shows that the concept of leadership has actually changed a lot. In the modern day
scenario, employees are actually looking for a greater say and a greater participation in the
administration system (Rose, Geesa & Stith, 2019). They want to be trusted and take part in the
business decision making process. I always try to follow the people centric or the people oriented
leadership style where I am able to develop a proper connection with my team and can gain their
trust. (Lucas & Schwartzstein, 2016).
The results of the Gallup Strengths Finder
I am consistent in nature. This is indeed one of the greatest traits that enable me to develop a
proper interpersonal skill. This is because I am able to treat everyone around me with the equal
amount of respect. I have a rational mindset and this also enables me to understand each of my
team members and gave enough time to solve the issues if they are suffering from any (Yee et
al., 2018).
I also have a strategic thinking quality. This is one of the most needed traits among the modern
day leaders. This is because of I would never give up brainstorming and of looking for better
innovations in order to promote the betterment of my team members and the organization as a
whole. I always try to develop a proper interpersonal relationship with my team (Copeland,

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2016). This is through honesty and loyalty; I value these two qualities the most and try to abide
by the same. I always try to set the proper example in front of all my team members or my
followers so that they are able to work with honest and also stay loyal towards their
commitments and job responsibilities.
As per partner’s feedback is concerned I must never give up learning. Earlier I was of the
opinion that I am responsible enough to solve all the issues. However my peer feedback said that
I must focus over learning more as this will enable me to enrich my skills (Meyers et al., 2019).
5. Conclusion
Therefore it can be concluded that I am currently following a people oriented leadership
approach and this has helped me to develop proper connection with my team members. I am able
to understand the different issues that are being raised by my team members and I also give
sufficient time to solve those. I hope to follow the test results of Gallup test finder and also the
feedbacks from my peers so that I am able to incorporate the same in future and am able to
develop my areas of weakness as well. I will always try to ensure that I am taking proper
feedbacks from my peers and the employees so that I can always keep a track of my progress. I
will make sure that there is no delay in taking the strategies needed for the overall welfare of my
team and my organization as well. Treating everyone equally will be one of my major motif.
Therefore I will always treat my team members with equal respect and ensure that no one is
suffering from any kinds of hesitations. I will make it a point to take up many such personality
tests so that I can follow the continuous improvement strategy.

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References
Busch, P. S., & Davis, S. W. (2018). Inside Out Personal Branding (IOPB): Using Gallup Clifton
StrengthsFinder 2.0 and 360Reach. Marketing Education Review, 28(3), 187-202.
Copeland, M. K. (2016). The impact of authentic, ethical, transformational leadership on leader
effectiveness. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 13(3), 79.
Fox, J. C. (2018). Developing the Individual and Organizational Ethic.
Fremont, V., & Jonathan, G. M. (2018). Can Blockchain Technology Solve Trust Issues in
Industrial Networks?. In 17th International Conference Perspectives in Business
Informatics Research (BIR 2018), Stockholm, Sweden, September 24-26, 2018 (pp. 399-
404). CEUR-WS. org.
Iuga, M. V., & Rosca, L. I. (2017). Comparison of problem solving tools in lean organizations.
In MATEC Web of Conferences (Vol. 121, p. 02004). EDP Sciences.
Juaneda-Ayensa, E., Olarte-Pascual, C., San Emeterio, M. C., & Pelegrín-Borondo, J. (2019).
Developing new “Professionals”: Service learning in marketing as an opportunity to
innovate in higher education. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 60, 163-169.
Lucas, N., & Schwartzstein, L. (2016, July). Cultivating Creative and Engaged Learners Through
Strengths-Based Approaches. In Innovations in Teaching & Learning Conference
Proceedings (Vol. 8).